This invention relates to targets having a means for counting hits, and is particularly there intended for use in conjunction with toy dart guns.
In the past, there have been many different games involving a target having a score keeping element, which is rotated step-by-step in response to successive hits. Such devices use various structures wherein a target, when hit, causes rotation of another element.
For example, the patent to Fenton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,376,039, discloses a photocell target with an indexed target disc in which a "hit" indicator is coupled to a Geneva mechanism and advanced to indicate another hit each time the photocell is energized. Another example is that shown in the patent to Wyman et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,201. It discloses a rotatably scoring dart board having darts which, when thrown, attach to the target and thus tend to turn the target about its rotational axis by an amount which is a function of the radial and angular position of the dart on the target. Another score keeping device, disclosed in the patent to Payne, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,552, is actuated by a hockey puck as it travels from a simulated cage to cause a spring powered dial to turn one increment indicative of the new score.
Difficulties have been encountered with conventional hit counting devices such as those due mainly to the complexity of such devices. The presence of numerous electrical connections, gears, belts, etc., makes such devices relatively expensive to manufacture and assemble, and decreases reliability and durability of the devices. Furthermore, depending on the type of target used it may be important that the device merely count hits of the target, and not necessarily reflect accuracy of the hit in terms of proximity from the center of the target. In addition it is important that such a device increase a score by one increment per hit, and not be permitted to decrease the score by having the score indicator operate in a reverse direction.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to construct a new and improved target with hit counter which is simple, efficient, and inexpensive to construct. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hit counter which counts successive hits of the target by turning one increment for each hit. Another object is to proved a hit counter that is reliable and durable.